Gina Rodriguez Furious At Accusations Of Using Latino Heritage As 'Marketing'

A few months ago, actress Gina Rodriguez was extremely excited to share her cover story for People En Español, but instead was bombarded with criticism from her followers, after trying to connect with her Spanish-speaking fan base by captioning her photo in both, English and Spanish.“Gracias @peopleenespanol por todo el apoyo. Por tener fe en mi carrera y elevar la comunidad Latina . Por favor de recoger su copia!!” was the caption that sparked the controversy. To this, Rodriguez responded, “It drives me crazy that people would decide to be hateful on social media.”

Now, after things cooled down, a hater accused her of using her Latino heritage as a “marketing tool,” since she “can’t even speak Spanish.” Sergio Garces tweeted: ““trying to understand how a person 'proud' of her Hispanic Heritage like @HereIsGina can't even speak spanish... #latinIssuesinUS #lame.” Rodriguez is not one to stay quiet, so responded: “You know what's lame is you are wrong. I can, maybe not as good as you. But why discriminate against ur ppl? Hater.”

Things didn’t end there; Garces responded with another tweet saying, “i don't want to discriminate at all! but it seems from here (spain) that some of you use the 'latino' heritage as marketing...”